300: Battle of Artemisia Looking to Recruit Warrior’s Joel Edgerton

It looks like actor Joel Edgerton will have to start hitting the gym if Vulture‘s sources are correct. According to the blog, the star of Warrior, The Thing prequel and the upcoming Great Gatsby is in talks with Warner Bros. to star in 300: Battle of Artemisia, the follow-up to Zack Snyder’s 2007 hit.

Snyder is co-writing the script based on Frank Miller’s upcoming comic prequel Xerxes, with Smart People‘s Noam Murro set to direct. Edgerton is being eyed for the role of Themosticles, the Athenian general and politician who rallied the Greeks against the invading Persians in 480 BCE, 10 years before 300.

“The lead character is Themistocles, who became warlord of Greece and built their navy,” Miller told Hero Complex last year. “The story is very different than 300 in that it involves Xerxes search for godhood. The existence of gods are presupposed in this story and the idea is that he’s well on his way to godhood by the end of the story.”

Co-written by Snyder’s 300 collaborator Kurt Johnstad, Battle of Artemisia employ the same green-screen visual effects that helped to propel the 2007 film to a $456-million global box office.